Share your diabetic holiday tips!

rheddmobile

It's September and the holiday season is coming up. This will be my first holiday season after my diabetes diagnosis, and I'm hoping to figure out how to balance social life and traditions with good blood glucose control.

Hoping some more experienced people will weigh in, along with anyone feeling stress over the holidays. What's your holiday eating strategy? Any survival tips for temptations and family gatherings? Recommended holiday recipes or substitutions?

For my family, Thanksgiving is the worst. I created a sample meal on MFP of the typical foods eaten in my family, and a single helping of the foods we traditionally eat at Thanksgiving adds up to over 225g net carbs. I can handle at most 50! No wonder I felt terrible last year. And that's not going hog wild, it's just moderate servings of turkey with stuffing, cranberry sauce and gravy, a small roll, green bean casserole, a Coke, and pecan pie for dessert. Many families additionally have corn, sweet potatoes with marshmallow topping, corn bread, mashed potatoes, chess pie... on and on with the carb heavy foods!

My family is small, which means I carry a lot of the weight of preparing food for others, and my mother really values food traditions. Our pecan pie recipe was handwritten by my great-grandmother. I make it every year. It's like 90g net carbs per slice. My mother's friend, (by the way an insulin dependent type 2 diabetic who eats whatever she wants and as a result is now in kidney failure) always brings oyster stuffing which is famously good. It would be awkward to turn the stuffing down, or refuse to bring the pie, or change it to something more suitable for glucose control such as an artificially sweetened pie. Besides artificially sweetened desserts taste disgusting to me. More to the point I want to be able to eat even just a little of the foods we have eaten all my life. It makes me sad and angry that they are basically poison to me now. I don't want to eat just plain turkey and green beans and no dessert on what is supposed to be a day of celebration! What now? If I were on insulin I could just bolus more for my meal, but I'm not on any meds but metformin, so my insulin response is what it is.

2t9nty

I did Thanksgiving and Christmas last year and stayed under 20 carbs (net) a day. It was my first experience after my diagnosis. There is a lot you can't eat. If you can't turn it down, I guess you are going to eat it.

I would suggest avoiding the poison, but that is just me. Things are different for us, and we want to keep our vision and all our extremities. I can pass on the carbs and still celebrate.

Some people may suggest falling off the wagon for a day and then getting back with the program the next. Famously this does not work well for alcoholics. I think in terms of carb addiction in my approach to the diet.

RalfLott

2t9nty wrote: »

I did Thanksgiving and Christmas last year and stayed under 20 carbs (net) a day. It was my first experience after my diagnosis. There is a lot you can't eat. If you can't turn it down, I guess you are going to eat it.

I would suggest avoiding the poison, but that is just me. Things are different for us, and we want to keep our vision and all our extremities. I can pass on the carbs and still celebrate.

Some people may suggest falling off the wagon for a day and then getting back with the program the next. Famously this does not work well for alcoholics. I think in terms of carb addiction in my approach to the diet.

Bravo! Well put.

Almost 2 years after finally ditching carbs, I have a hard time not wanting to thow out OJ, flour, and other glucose-spikers I imagine fueling someone's addiction...

***

In the early days of American diets and health claims, the mad men behind the Cigarette Diet conjured up the clever addiction swap,

Pass me a Lucky and I'll pass on the sweets!

Since smoking's not really an option, my wrinkle on that slogan became,

You keep your stuffing {marshmallows, etc.}, and I'll keep my toes.

BarneyRubbleMD

For Thanksgiving meal I plan to...

1. Move up to my maintenance calorie limit (2800-3000 calories).
2. Pre-plan my meal so I'll have an idea of how much Novolog insulin I'll need for the meal (more than the 3 units I've been injecting for 72 grams of carbs but not sure how much yet until I get closer to Thanksgiving since my meal-time insulin dosage has been dropping).
3. Have 6-7 oz turkey breast meat with gravy (I'll eat this first!...to help fill me up!).
4. Have about 1/2 cup mashed potatoes with gravy.
5. Have about 1 cup (maybe 1.5 cup?) stuffing with gravy.
6. Have 1/4 cup of corn and a single pea (FYI: I hate peas but I need some green on my plate to appease mom).
7. Have 1/3 slice of pumpkin pie with coffee with half&half cream.
8. Have water as desired.
9. Take a 1 hour walk after the meal.

The family will also be having:
sweet potatoes with marshmallows (I'll skip--I don't like this)
green been casserole (I'll skip--I don't like this)
cranberry sauce (I'll skip--I don't like this)
rolls (I like this but will skip since I'll get plenty of "bread" with the stuffing!)
ice cream (I like this but I will skip as I haven't been able to work ice cream back into my eating plan yet.

rheddmobile

I'm not low carbing and don't plan to, since my A1c is 4.7 currently on about 150g / day. But it's difficult to manage a meal made up of nothing but carbs. So your suggestion seems to be, eat your dry turkey and accept that diabetics don't get to enjoy holidays?

2t9nty

The dark meat is more moist as a rule. I enjoyed the holidays last year, but I did not enjoy them with pie and stuffing.

BarneyRubbleMD

rheddmobile wrote: »

I'm not low carbing and don't plan to, since my A1c is 4.7 currently on about 150g / day. But it's difficult to manage a meal made up of nothing but carbs. So your suggestion seems to be, eat your dry turkey and accept that diabetics don't get to enjoy holidays?

Not at all--just use lots of gravy with the turkey which is what I do and the turkey has never been dry that way and quite satisfying with all the fat from the gravy & like 2t9nty mentioned, the dark meat is even more moist than white meat & with gravy, even better for a moist meat meal!.

I've learned this year that I can use "portion control" with sweets and other carb-loaded items like pie and just have a smaller slice and still really enjoy the flavor of that pumpkin pie without having to eat a huge slice of it anymore, which is what I use to do. I'll splurge a bit on the stuffing as that's my weakness (i.e. bread) but with everything else I'm planning to eat, including a large portion of turkey meat with lots of gravy, I figure I can keep the stuffing to a "reasonable" portion instead of a heaping plate of it like I use to.

I don't do low carb anymore (I tried it but could not stick to it). My daily intake of carbs is about 160 grams, sometime more (180-195 grams) on 2400 calories/day but seem to be settling at around 160 grams of carbs/day. A "splurge" day will take me up to 225 grams so I'm guessing my Thanksgiving meal will come to around 250 grams of carbs or just a little above my max carb day (226 g) of the past month or so. I won't know for sure any of this until I pre-log it and see how it all adds up. Maybe I'll find out I can have a full piece of pumpkin pie, or a 1/2 slice of pumpkin & pecan pie and 2 cups of stuffing and 1 cup of mashed potatoes and still be within that 250 gram carb limit or close to it.

Since you mentioned you're currently on about 150g carbs/day with an A1c of 4.7 (which is excellent--mine is 5.4 but I am on insulin), do you have an idea how high your blood sugar will go if you doubled those carbs for just 1 meal?

Your carb load of 150g is close to mine (160g) and if I increased that to even 300g for 1 day (Thanksgiving), my blood sugar would be high after the meal & perhaps even 6 hours later but within 24-36 hours it would likely be back down to where it normally is and a 1 day high-sugar "blip" will have little effect on the A1c value since that's more like a 90-day "average". Since you can handle 150g of carbs/day OK without insulin (i.e. your pancreas is working well enough for 150g of carbs/day), if I was you (& didn't have my insulin available), I wouldn't be concerned with a splurge meal at Thanksgiving that might be a carb loaded day of 300g of carbs knowing that it's equivalent to 2 "normal" days for the pancreas when it's normally use to seeing 150g of carbs/day. It's not like it's been use to dealing with just 20g of carbs/day (like for some on here) and then to get hit with 300g of carbs for a day could take quite some time to "recover" from that without insulin.

rheddmobile

BarneyRubbleMD wrote: »

rheddmobile wrote: »

I'm not low carbing and don't plan to, since my A1c is 4.7 currently on about 150g / day. But it's difficult to manage a meal made up of nothing but carbs. So your suggestion seems to be, eat your dry turkey and accept that diabetics don't get to enjoy holidays?

Not at all--just use lots of gravy with the turkey which is what I do and the turkey has never been dry that way and quite satisfying with all the fat from the gravy & like 2t9nty mentioned, the dark meat is even more moist than white meat & with gravy, even better for a moist meat meal!.

I've learned this year that I can use "portion control" with sweets and other carb-loaded items like pie and just have a smaller slice and still really enjoy the flavor of that pumpkin pie without having to eat a huge slice of it anymore, which is what I use to do. I'll splurge a bit on the stuffing as that's my weakness (i.e. bread) but with everything else I'm planning to eat, including a large portion of turkey meal with lots of gravy, I figure I can keep the stuffing to a "reasonable" portion instead of a heaping plate of it like I use to.

I don't do low carb anymore (I tried it but could not stick to it). My daily intake of carbs is about 160 grams, sometime more (180-195 grams) on 2400 calories/day but seem to be settling at around 160 grams of carbs/day. A "splurge" day will take me up to 225 grams so I'm guessing my Thanksgiving meal will come to around 250 grams of carbs or just a little above my max carb day (226 g) of the past month or so. I won't know for sure any of this until I pre-log it and see how it all adds up. Maybe I'll find out I can have a full piece of pumpkin pie, or a 1/2 slice of pumpkin & pecan pie and 2 cups of stuffing and 1 cup of mashed potatoes and still be within that 250 gram carb limit or close to it.

Since you mentioned you're currently on about 150g carbs/day with an A1c of 4.7 (which is excellent--mine is 5.4 but I am on insulin), do you have an idea how high your blood sugar will go if you doubled those carbs for just 1 meal?

Your carb load of 150g is close to mine (160g) and if I increased that to even 300g for 1 day (Thanksgiving), my blood sugar would be high after the meal & perhaps even 6 hours later but within 24-36 hours it would likely be back down to where it normally is and a 1 day high-sugar "blip" will have little effect on the A1c value since that's more like a 90-day "average". Since you can handle 150g of carbs/day OK without insulin (i.e. your pancreas is working well enough for 150g of carbs/day), if I was you (& didn't have my insulin available), I wouldn't be concerned with a splurge meal at Thanksgiving that might be a carb loaded day of 300g of carbs knowing that it's equivalent to 2 "normal" days for the pancreas when it's normally use to seeing 150g of carbs/day. It's not like it's been use to dealing with just 20g of carbs/day (like for some on here) and then to get hit with 300g of carbs for a day could take quite some time to "recover" from that without insulin.

Thanks for the detailed response. Unfortunately since going off glimeperide I don't have a lot of wiggle room - sometimes I can manage about 50g at one sitting of the right carbs, such as potatoes or pasta. Bread products such as stuffing do me in. The last time I ate an entire tortilla I had a spike to 169, and half of one takes me to about 140. Refined sugars such as pecan pie would likely be worse. It does come down fairly quickly, especially with exercise, but my family sits and talks at the table for hours. So the only exercise would be if I ducked into the bathroom and did squats or something. And the other things is my family eats fast - the whole meal including dessert is gone in an hour. If I could eat dessert two hours after the meal, I might try half a piece of pie, but I can't manage it on top of dinner.

I do have a stash of leftover glimeperide, which starts acting within thirty minutes, which I've gone back onto temporarily when I was sick and having problems with control. But while it drops my resting glucose about fifteen points, it doesn't do much for my spikes.

I know from experience that at 200 my vision starts getting blurry from pressure changes, which once it happens lasts for weeks, so I'm not willing to play games with it, even for a day.

BarneyRubbleMD

rheddmobile wrote: »

BarneyRubbleMD wrote: »

rheddmobile wrote: »

I'm not low carbing and don't plan to, since my A1c is 4.7 currently on about 150g / day. But it's difficult to manage a meal made up of nothing but carbs. So your suggestion seems to be, eat your dry turkey and accept that diabetics don't get to enjoy holidays?

Not at all--just use lots of gravy with the turkey which is what I do and the turkey has never been dry that way and quite satisfying with all the fat from the gravy & like 2t9nty mentioned, the dark meat is even more moist than white meat & with gravy, even better for a moist meat meal!.

I've learned this year that I can use "portion control" with sweets and other carb-loaded items like pie and just have a smaller slice and still really enjoy the flavor of that pumpkin pie without having to eat a huge slice of it anymore, which is what I use to do. I'll splurge a bit on the stuffing as that's my weakness (i.e. bread) but with everything else I'm planning to eat, including a large portion of turkey meal with lots of gravy, I figure I can keep the stuffing to a "reasonable" portion instead of a heaping plate of it like I use to.

I don't do low carb anymore (I tried it but could not stick to it). My daily intake of carbs is about 160 grams, sometime more (180-195 grams) on 2400 calories/day but seem to be settling at around 160 grams of carbs/day. A "splurge" day will take me up to 225 grams so I'm guessing my Thanksgiving meal will come to around 250 grams of carbs or just a little above my max carb day (226 g) of the past month or so. I won't know for sure any of this until I pre-log it and see how it all adds up. Maybe I'll find out I can have a full piece of pumpkin pie, or a 1/2 slice of pumpkin & pecan pie and 2 cups of stuffing and 1 cup of mashed potatoes and still be within that 250 gram carb limit or close to it.

Since you mentioned you're currently on about 150g carbs/day with an A1c of 4.7 (which is excellent--mine is 5.4 but I am on insulin), do you have an idea how high your blood sugar will go if you doubled those carbs for just 1 meal?

Your carb load of 150g is close to mine (160g) and if I increased that to even 300g for 1 day (Thanksgiving), my blood sugar would be high after the meal & perhaps even 6 hours later but within 24-36 hours it would likely be back down to where it normally is and a 1 day high-sugar "blip" will have little effect on the A1c value since that's more like a 90-day "average". Since you can handle 150g of carbs/day OK without insulin (i.e. your pancreas is working well enough for 150g of carbs/day), if I was you (& didn't have my insulin available), I wouldn't be concerned with a splurge meal at Thanksgiving that might be a carb loaded day of 300g of carbs knowing that it's equivalent to 2 "normal" days for the pancreas when it's normally use to seeing 150g of carbs/day. It's not like it's been use to dealing with just 20g of carbs/day (like for some on here) and then to get hit with 300g of carbs for a day could take quite some time to "recover" from that without insulin.

Thanks for the detailed response. Unfortunately since going off glimeperide I don't have a lot of wiggle room - sometimes I can manage about 50g at one sitting of the right carbs, such as potatoes or pasta. Bread products such as stuffing do me in. The last time I ate an entire tortilla I had a spike to 169, and half of one takes me to about 140. Refined sugars such as pecan pie would likely be worse. It does come down fairly quickly, especially with exercise, but my family sits and talks at the table for hours. So the only exercise would be if I ducked into the bathroom and did squats or something. And the other things is my family eats fast - the whole meal including dessert is gone in an hour. If I could eat dessert two hours after the meal, I might try half a piece of pie, but I can't manage it on top of dinner.

I do have a stash of leftover glimeperide, which starts acting within thirty minutes, which I've gone back onto temporarily when I was sick and having problems with control. But while it drops my resting glucose about fifteen points, it doesn't do much for my spikes.

I know from experience that at 200 my vision starts getting blurry from pressure changes, which once it happens lasts for weeks, so I'm not willing to play games with it, even for a day.

Damn, only 50g of carbs at a sitting--that's not much when thinking about a holiday meal!

When you mentioned "spike", what does that mean? BG goes up and then down? in how much time? or does it go up and take a long time to come back down?

I know for myself, I mainly get concerned when my BG gets high (over 140) and stays there (or drops very slowly--for 2 hours or more)--then I know I had too many carbs in my meal and/or not enough meal-time insulin (Novolog) to deal with those carbs.

Have you ever used meal-time insulin (Novolog/Humalog) before?

After reading about your holiday situation and that I'll soon be off my meal-time insulin (probably by the end of the year), I think I'll make sure to get a refill in December of my Novolog insulin prescription (since my deductible has already been met) so I know I'll have some available when I need it for get-togethers, holidays, vacations, etc when I'd likely only need a little meal-time insulin to keep my blood sugars always in a decent range. I'm thinking it could be difficult to obtain meal-time insulin after my prescription expires (or for anyone never on insulin) once I'm not considered diabetic anymore (i.e. no longer on diabetes medications and A1c in the non-diabetic range).

nvmomketo

I am making Thanksgiving dinner on Monday (Canada) and I'll keep mine low carb, although probably higher than my usual ketogenic carb levels of well below 10g at every meal.

I make holiday meals because I am a celiac - much trickier to manage than eating low carb but still enjoyable. I definitely do not get to eat everything I want but that's life. Acceptance is the key to happiness - complaining or wallowing gets me no where.

I'm making:
turkey
gravy
stuffing (heavy on sausages, onions, and celery and lighter on GF bread)
brussle sprouts
roasted veggies
salad
cranberry suace (no sugar)
carrot and turnip bake
mashed potatoes
possibly a ham depending on the number of guests I get
pumpkin pies and whipped cream
crustless cheesecake squares

I'll skip the mashed potatoes, have a bit of the carrot/turnip bake, a few roasted veggies, limited gravy, perhaps a bit of cranberry sauce, and lots of everything else. I do not use sugar in my baking - just stevia - so I can have some desert if I wish. I may just leave most of the cookie crumb crust in the dish and add a bit of extra whipped cream.

I'm not on insulin and rely on lower carb to keep BG lower.